Member’s profile
SESAR’s “Savoir-faire”:
A view from the French Air
Navigation Service Provider
DSNA (Direction des Services de la
Navigation Aérienne) is the French
Air Navigation Service Provider
(ANSP) within the national civil
aviation authority (Direction
Générale de l’Aviation Civile - DGAC). The French
ANSP handles nearly 3 million civil flights
annually through 5 air traffic control centres and
81 towers, making it Europe’s leading provider of
air navigation services.
DSNA has been an avid supporter of SESAR ever since
its definition phase. Today, through its membership,
the French ANSP actively participates in 56 projects,
involving almost 100 of its employees, including
operational experts. As leader of the En-Route SESAR
work package, DSNA also contributes to projects
related to airports, Terminal Manoeuvring Areas
(TMA), network and some transversal activities. In
addition to its participation in these projects and the
Programme’s development phase, the French ANSP is
also part of the A6 alliance of ANSPs, which seeks to
provide a catalyst for the ANSPs’ contribution to the
modernisation of the European Air Traffic Management
(ATM) system.
Validating the work undertaken in SESAR is a major
focus of DSNA’s membership. A validation platform
at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport, which integrates
prototypes provided by Thales, is extensively used
by the French ANSP to validate enhanced capabilities
for airport surface management, such as integrating
Departure Manager (DMAN) and surface routing
functionalities. Both of these are key features of
the proposed Pilot Common Project (PCP), the first
set of ATM functionalities ready for synchronised
deployment. Paris-Charles de Gaulle is also hosting
on-going validation activities on Runway Status Light
(RWSL). Through this validation work, key safety
benefits for airport surface operations are expected.
DSNA will continue to actively participate in SESAR
validation exercises.
Keen to innovate and improve operational performance,
DSNA has implemented Coflight, the new Flight Data
Processing System, ready for i4D, offering highly
advanced functions such as gate-to-gate flight data
processing, interoperability functions with other
technical systems for the exchange of flight plan data,
and data link capabilities. Three validation exercises have
already made use of Coflight, including an exercise on
the SESAR concept of Flight Object Interoperability,
and others are under preparation focusing particularly
on Free Route validation – the latter has also been
identified as an important functionality in the PCP. The
SESAR work on Free Route is complex as it involves a
high number of projects and the further definition and
validation of key Free Route functionalities.
The benefits for DSNA’s participation in SESAR became
all the more apparent thanks to two validation exercises
undertaken in June and December 2012 within the
Programme. These resulted in a new, more efficient
arrival procedure at a high altitude that was subsequently
put in place one year later in Paris ACC for integrating
inbound flights to Paris-Charles de Gaulle using the
“Point Merge” operational concept. The procedure
implemented in Paris uses a merge point located
approximately 40 NM from the airport. When traffic
©DSNA
Partnering for smarter aviation
11
©DSNA
DSNA fully supports
the extension of
the SESAR Joint Undertaking,
and will be active contributor
to the definition of
the SESAR 2020
programme
density is high, the air traffic controller instructs the
pilot to fly on the arc until they are instructed to turn
inbound to the merge point when the right spacing
from the preceding aircraft has been attained. Here the
airspace required a complex re-design since the merge
points and the arcs flown by aircraft are much bigger.
With Point Merge, aircraft are already in the right
landing order when leaving the point merge arc.
Compared to a normal procedure, this allows the
aircraft to remain at higher altitude for longer and
descend on a continual path at a later stage to the
initial approach fix, which greatly decreases noise. The
system also results in greater flight efficiency, since
more flights can be managed simultaneously while
they are in continuous descent, even during heavy
traffic periods. These benefits have been validated by
SESAR and are now clearly visible for inbound flights
to Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport.
For DSNA, SESAR is the best place to ensure industry
involvement in new concepts and functionalities. It is
also the right vehicle to facilitate the harmonisation of
practices, procedures and technologies between various
actors, and to bring new functionalities to the level of
maturity required for deployment plans. Over the course
of 2014, DSNA will continue to actively participate in
SESAR validation exercises. Already planned is the
validation of SESAR’s Extended Arrival Manager (XMAN)
concept, which will be assessed in live trials between
Reims UAC and London, using a SWIM-based service.
Given the diversity and complexity of the airspace that
it manages, DSNA also takes part in a number SESAR
Demonstration Projects, which it sees as important
opportunities to make progress on operational
concepts and procedures within a live and larger
traffic environment. Interesting results have been
obtained from projects, such as FAIRSTREAM (FABEC
ANSPs and AIRlines in SESAR TRials for Enhanced
Arrival Management), which aims to pave the way
for the use of Target Time of Arrival (TTA), instead of
calculated take off time (CTOT). The DSNA SESAR
teams are also involved in activities of the Functional
Airspace Block Europe Central (FABEC), such as
Free Route, XMAN and networks, in order to ensure
consistency and to facilitate SESAR deployment in
the FABEC airspace.
There is still some way to go to modernise Europe’s
ATM, which is why DSNA fully supports the
extension of the SESAR Joint Undertaking and will
be active contributor to the definition of the SESAR
2020 programme. DSNA expects that SESAR 2020
will ensure a smooth transition from the current
Programme, taking advantage of all management
and structural improvements achieved since the
start of the SESAR JU. www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr
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